he told Chapuys in 1533, "to repair the errors of Henry II.
and John, who, being in difficulties, had made England and Ireland
tributary to the Pope; he was determined also to reunite to the Crown
the goods which churchmen held of it, which his predecessors could not
alienate to his prejudice; and he was bound to do this by the oath he
had taken at his coronation."[765] Probably it was about this time, or
a little later, that he drew up his suggestions for altering the
coronation oath, and making the royal obligations binding only so far
as the royal conscience thought fit. The German princes had a further
claim to his consideration beyond the example they set him in dealing
with the temporalties of the Church. They might be very useful if his
difference with Charles over Catherine of Aragon came to an open
breach; and the English envoys, who congratulated them on their zeal
for reform, also endeavoured to persuade them that Henry's friendship
might be no little safeguard against a despotic Emperor.

[Footnote 762: _Ibid._, v., 129, 148.]

[Footnote 763: _Ibid._, iv., 6546.]

[Footnote 764: _L. and P._, v., 326.]

[Footnote 765: _Ibid._, vi., 235.]

All these phenomena, the Reformation in Germany, heresy at home, and
the anti-sacerdotal prejudices of his subjects, were regarded by Henry
merely as circumstances which might be made subservient to his own
particular purpose; and the skill with which he used them is a (p. 276)
monument of farsighted statecraft.[766] He did not act on the impulse
of rash caprice. His passions were strong, but his self-control was
stronger; and the breach with Rome was effected with a cold and
calculated cunning, which the most adept disciple of Machiavelli could
not have excelled. He did not create the factors he used; hostility to
the Church had a real objective existence. Henry was a great man; but
the burdens his people felt were not the product of Henry's hypnotic
suggestion. He could only divert those grievances to his own use. He
had no personal dislike to probate dues or annates; he did not pay
them, but the threat of their abolition might compel the Pope to grant
his divorce. Heresy in itself was abominable, but if heretics would
maintain the royal against the papal supremacy, might not their sins
be forgiven? The strength of Henry's position lay in the fact that he
stood between two evenly balanced